I would recommend you sit them down and have them brain dump. What did they learn, how would it benefit others coming up the line. One of the biggest issues I’ve seen in the service is the loss of institutional knowledge that takes place any time someone ETS/retires without passing on what they know. How many projects have you had to complete,…[Read more]

Good Monday morning!

From my foxhole, junior officers are the front line raters and counselors, so they are the ones who actually know what talents, strengths, etc., that their Soldiers have.  What they should be doing with this information is then communicating it higher. This can be in the form of counseling, recommendations on future p…[Read more]

Good Monday morning!

From my foxhole, junior officers are the front line raters and counselors, so they are the ones who actually know what talents, strengths, etc., that their Soldiers have.  What they should be doing with this information is then communicating it higher. This can be in the form of counseling, recommendations on future p…[Read more]

Good Monday morning!

From my foxhole, junior officers are the front line raters and counselors, so they are the ones who actually know what talents, strengths, etc., that their Soldiers have.  What they should be doing with this information is then communicating it higher. This can be in the form of counseling, recommendations on future p…[Read more]

The fact you’re asking here and now already puts you ahead of your peers. To caveat off a couple of things @logisticus mentioned.

Standout by knowing and doing your job – doing it to standard, efficiently, and effectively. If you don’t know, ask. If you want to know a better way to do something, look for it. The NG is full of young officers who…[Read more]

The fact you’re asking here and now already puts you ahead of your peers. To caveat off a couple of things @logisticus mentioned.

Standout by knowing and doing your job – doing it to standard, efficiently, and effectively. If you don’t know, ask. If you want to know a better way to do something, look for it. The NG is full of young officers who…[Read more]

Management is definitely a major gap for me.  My last two commands comes down to one very serious problem; “professional development” isn’t a priority from the BN level.  I think I had management at the platoon level down; I’m still figuring out the company command management thing (but I’m getting it I think). However what’s next? The last 2 B…[Read more]

Jefferey,

Congratulations! This was something that I spent about a month trying to figure out, basically as soon as I took command right up until the point that I briefed my company for the first time. I guess it included my speech as the incoming commander during the CoC.

I tried to keep with a theme which boiled down to my vision for the…[Read more]

Justin! As I logged into JO I was sending out my first appointment letter to one of my 2LTs. Talk about coincidence!

Resources. Your main resource will be your legal representative/JAG. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about procedures, processes, etc. Another great resource are other officers who’ve done this before. Things like here (JO), M…[Read more]

Some of the best advice I can offer are the following:

1) Get an example of what the approving authority is looking for. Some BDE CDRs accept 4 achievements on an ARCOM written as simply as “Joe did X, X helped the unit Y amount.” Then again, some BN CDRs want full, multi-sentence write-ups in each achievement block to justify an AAM. Know what…[Read more]

Me? Because I was once an Aide, I hate coins. I mean like, vehemently, HATE coins. However I understand their value as far as morale. Sometimes there just isn’t time or justification to write up an award or positive counseling. So what I did was come up with my own “ata-boy” type device, a velcro backed patch. Like a coin, it can be given right…[Read more]